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Puzzle Pieces
Maiwen stood in shocked silence, seeing her father before her. Tiberius stepped towards him and tried to introduce himself, failing due to how he couldn't open his mouth for the next eight hours. Yuan ignored his outstretched hand and once again told Maiwen it was time for her to come home. She said that she wasn't ready and hadn't found the answer yet. She switched to Druidic and showed him all the research she'd done. He told her she didn't need to saddle herself with undertaking this quest alone. She complained that her brother was allowed to leave and he retorted that he wasn't losing another family member. Distressed, she argued that Fenris was on her side as they had sent Anagis Alba to her. Yuan said that he knew, he had been watching her. She said she didn't understand why she wasn't allowed to go on this journey and he replied that it was because he had lost a wife, a son, and he didn't want to lose a daughter as well. She started to cry and he pulled her into an embrace. She agreed to come home for the time being and Yuan agreed to wait for Valentine to return before taking her back. Around noon, Valentine and the monkey arrived at Eugene's, having run almost the whole way there. Valentine tried to introduce his new friend only to find that she didn't remember her name. Inside, Yuan introduced himself with his full title to Valentine's dismay. Valentine then ended the spell he cast on Tiberius so he could speak again. Tiberius immediately began grilling Yuan on what Maiwen was like as a child. Yuan said that he could arrange for someone to take Kelree back to her parents if she would join them in going to the Eagle's Valley. Castell said that she, Tristan, and Nemo would continue their search for Jun. Maiwen gave their to-do list to her father; they had to take Kelree to her parents, find somewhere for Worgar to go, help the homunculi find Jun, find Mog, Lucas, and Chus, and Valentine and the monkey needed to find Manaia. He said that they could return to their quest at some point or other. Valentine spoke to Maiwen and Tiberius privately and explained that he now did believe that he used to be the dragonborn Valentine, however that he was also still the same person, despite his lack of memories. Maiwen still seemed unconvinced. Having brought back the remains of an automaton from Coalsunder's workshop, Tiberius asked Eugene if he could repair it for them. He asked Maiwen and Valentine for some money to cover it, and the subject of Valentine's possessions came up. Maiwen finally decided to give them all back to him, including Wayfinder, telling him it was what saved his life before. While giving some money to Tiberius, Valentine suggested the name Penny, for the monkey and she agreed. During their goodbyes to everyone, Valentine gave Nemo his Ring of Warmth and told her that she was with people she could trust. Yuan then took Maiwen, Valentine, Tiberius, Penny, Worgar, Kelree, and their new automaton to a large tree and created a portal in its trunk that led to the Eagle's Valley. Upon exiting the portal, Maiwen found herself surrounded by friends, people she had grown up with, all clamouring to welcome her back and give her hugs. The newcomers found themselves surrounded by people all trying to introduce themselves with extremely long names all at the same time. Valentine and Tiberius suddenly found their own names to be so unimpressive in comparisson, and so started embellishing their own. Tiberius became "Tiberius, the Whisperer and Lamb Luter of the Moonlit Sky of the Far Eastern Lands of Thaalond," and Valentine became "Valentine, of many faces, of many lands, of many places." Valentine and Tiberius asked Maiwen about her clan's names and she explained that they are given titles as they move through life. Eager to talk to her grandma, she lead the others to her medicine hut, where they met Gwawr. She introduced herself with her full title, which took a whole minute to recite. She revealed that she had also been watching Maiwen in her travels. She told her that her father had changed since she left and reminded her that, aside from herself, Maiwen was the only family Yuan had left. Maiwen mentioned her visions of Mog and asked if she knew how to find him. Gwawr suggested that Maiwen might be able to do it herself. After hearing what exactly she experienced in the visions, Gwawr led them to the Great Tree in the middle of the village and explained that she had likely found Mog through the ley lines of the earth. As they Great Tree was directly connected to the ley lines, meditating underneath it might help her. As her friends watched Maiwen meditate, she went into a trance-like state, eyes rolling back into her head. Maiwen awoke to find herself in a similar landscape to before. In front of her was Mog. He told her she really had to stop petrifying herself. Delighted she was able to contact him, she told him about finding Torgan and giving them his message. She went on to enthuse about how they were going to meet up again to find him, to Mog's dismay. He reminded her that he had told her not to trust them and that he didn't want to be found because bad things would happen if he was free. Ignoring the gravity of his last statement, she she was going to come set him free and then everything would be great again. He forced her to listen to him and told her to forget about him; there was nobody on this earth who would protect him, Maiwen said she would become strong enough do it. Choosing to drop the circular conversation, Mog changed the subject to Torgan and Rohiri. She explained that they had some things to do before they started looking for Mog, and he said that he could guess what they were doing. They want the Seven together, and as far as he knew, they didn't have him, Lucas, or Ketifa, so they would likely be looking for one of the latter two. He implored her to stop this and she promised to try. After exiting the vision, Maiwen asked Gwawr if she could help Valentine in any way. Valentine explained the basic situation and introduced Penny. Penny said that she believed she used to be human as her daughter was one. After establishing that Valentine and Penny had lost all or most of their memories, Gwawr revealed that she could potentially recover some of their memories, and that she could even teach Maiwen how to do it too. Gwawr then started to perform a ritual, Valentine felt something tug on his gut, then suddenly he wasn't in the Eagle's Valley anymore. He found himself outside in a field, tall grass surrounding him. A book lay in his lap, one written in a language he had never seen before and yet could somehow understand. A young girl sat not far away from him, head buried in another book. Valentine forgot that he sat in a druid's hut in a giant forest, he forgot that he was a tiefling with no past, he forgot Maiwen and Tiberius and everyone else he knew. In that moment, he was just Valentine; the young human boy, looking at his sister, Rosabella. He and Rosabella spoke in the same language that was in the book; unbeknownst to Valentine, this was the same language he had heard Renata and Sorian speak in Herroda. After the memory was over, Gwawr revealed that she had also been watching the memory, although she had been unable to understand the language. After some experimentation, Valentine realised he was perfectly fluent in this language and could both write and speak it. He told his companions that he had a sister, to which Maiwen reacted with delight. She began wondering if she should send a message to Torgan and Normal to tell them to stop what they were doing, however Valentine put forward it might be a bad idea. Gwawr then suggested she should contact her brother instead. Valentine and Tiberius were surprised to find out she even had a brother. Maiwen sent a message to her brother Arywn, asking how his search was going and telling him she had embarked on the same journey. After waiting a while, she realised that she wouldn't be receiving a reply. Upset but trying not to show it, she asked Gwawr if you could turn cruelty into goodness. She mentioned how on their travels, they had come across people who would kill for fun, and asked if there was a way to make them good. Gwawr suggested offering them redemption, but said that people would not always want redemption. In these cases, if you truly cared and wanted them to become good people, the only thing to do is be there for them until they want your help. She also warned that some people are beyond help. Her last piece of advice was to tell Maiwen she should continue to be her wonderful self and inspire others to be like her. Penny asked to speak to Valentine alone, and asked if Gwawr could help her recover a memory. He said he wanted to help her and that he felt obligated in some way. She revealed that she had a daughter and needed to find her. Together they agreed to look out for each other. Once left to their own devices, Tiberius made it his mission to find out as much as possible about what Maiwen was like as a child by interviewing members of the clan. Valentine found the clan's woodworker and commissioned a certain item from him. In this time, Maiwen spoke privately to her grandma and had a much needed rant about everything she had been through recently. She also handed over the body of the dragonborn Valentine for Gwawr to take care of. Valentine spoke to Gwawr privately and confessed that he was terrified of going to sleep because he was worried he might forget everything again. He knew that she had been watching Maiwen in her travels, and asked if she had also seen him at all, eager to learn more about who he used to be. Gwawr told him that due to the nature of the spell she used, she hadn't been able to see much of him at all, and reminded him that he would learn more from his companions. He said that he had tried asking Maiwen, but her response had made him feel rejected. He believed that her perception of who he was was exaggerated by her grief. He revealed that he still couldn't truly believe that he used to be the dragonborn, because he knew that he wasn't confident and wouldn't be so outlandish. He even had difficulty believing that he travelled with Maiwen and Tiberius because of how childish and reckless they both were. He confessed that he had considered running away, however Gwawr helped talk him round into staying. He then asked for details on Maiwen's past, specifically an event that might have helped shape her as a person, as he wanted to know if he could trust her. Gwawr told him that Maiwen had always been a cheerful girl, and that although she was going through a rough period, at her core, she was a good person. At this point, he showed her Wayfinder, to which Gwawr took a great interest. She told him that it was very powerful and said that if it hadn't chosen him by now then he needed to pass it on.